Fragments of Eternity
by BookkeeperThe
Summary: A collection of drabbles, mostly Doctor-centric and angsty.
1. Infinite Mirror X Academy Era Doctor X

Infinite Mirror

Eight years old, quivering with fear and excitement, harboring a budding genius and the first seeds of restlessness, he steps up to the Untempered Schism . . .

. . . and he is looking at Reality, at all of Time and Space, and it _burns_ . . . and he is also looking at his own couldbes_willbes_mustbes, because his future_past_present and that of the Universe are_were_willbe inexorably intertwined . . . and he sees _family_rebellion_flight_adventure_love_excitement_fear_companionship_abandonment_victory_loss_**life** – and then there is _war_desperation_fire_burning_pain_**death –**

- and he runs, not sure which he fears more: that the death is his, or that it _isn't_.


	2. Distance X Tenth Doctor, Martha X

Distance

He touches her all the time. He grabs her hand when they run for their lives; he hugs her when the day is saved; he even touches her arm to offer comfort, if he has the time and notices that she needs it. It would mean more to her if he did not grasp for anyone within reach, if he were not as desperate for contact as he is terrified of intimacy. It would mean much more if his smile ever made it to his eyes.

The Doctor touches her all the time, but Martha can never quite reach him.


	3. Perpetual Motion X The Doctor X

Perpetual Motion

burning, burning, burning,  
always burning,  
everything burning,  
everyone screaming and falling and dying

and him,  
he _won_,  
but he's left hurting and bleeding and alone,

always, always alone

and then he's running, running, running  
and he is so, so _tired_,  
tired of the burning and the running and the killing,

but he can't stop,  
can't ever, ever stop  
because if a shark stops swimming it sinks,  
and if he stops running he'll break  
into a million, billion tiny little pieces  
and he'll never, ever be able to put himself back together again –

he's not entirely sure he hasn't broken already.


	4. Mask X The Doctor, Companion X

Mask

There's _something_ behind the mask, but the cracks aren't wide enough to see what it is yet. It's dark and terrible and frightening, but she can't tell whether the guilt or the anger is stronger. Sometimes she catches a flash of something like madness in his eyes, but it's gone before she can tell if it's barely-contained fire or the glint of inward-pointed knives.

When the mask finally shatters – and it will, because even he can't keep running, running, running like that without something giving eventually; can't stretch himself that thin without snapping – someone will be destroyed in the aftershock.


	5. Archaic X Tenth, Eleventh Doctor X

Archaic

There is hardly anything which the Doctor would not tell anyone under any circumstances. He has bared his soul to total strangers, to earn trust or buy time. He has launched his darkest secrets like weapons, to shock away dangerous, well-meant stubbornness. At some point, it seems, he will speak a word usually hidden even from himself to an intriguing enigma of a woman.

There are some phrases, though, which he will never utter – not because he doesn't wish to, but because he cannot bear to hear the dead syllables of untranslatable nuances echo in the emptiness of his mind.


	6. Reputation to Uphold X Eleventh Doctor

Reputation to Uphold

They're supposed to act identical; that's the plan, but he can't resist dropping the human mask, just a smidge. His double is careful, companionable, so he doesn't have to be. He can be a bit more brooding, a bit more distant. An experiment, he tells himself, just to see what will happen; what they do when they catch the tiniest glimpse of what lies beneath – but then his control slips. He shouts and rants and hurts her, scares her, scares himself. She thinks it's because of who he isn't, but he knows the truth.

They switched shoes. This is him.


	7. SelfPreservation X Rory

Self-Preservation

**A/N: Takes place during The Almost People**

Rory has never been so scared. Not like this. For Amy, yes. For the planet, the Universe, all of time and space, but never for himself. His own, personal existence has always seemed so small in comparison to everything he is fighting for. Now, though . . .

He forces himself to speak, but the raw, animal terror is clawing at his insides, screaming at him to RUN HIDE FREEZE, just hope that it lets you go, that it finds more interesting prey, because you'll never escape once it fixes those alien eyes on you –

"Ring ring," says the Doctor.


End file.
